Big Bend National Park: My 27th Birthday Weekend

Hello, lovelies!

You may have noticed that my blog name changed over the week from “How Does That Make You OM?” to “Whole Heart Bliss”. Let me explain.

I’ve been blogging for a whole year now (insert gasp-y sound effects here). I started this blog with the intent of learning more about counseling and yoga. While it has definitely done that, it’s evolved in to something different. I, for one, didn’t even know if blogging once a week was something that would stick. I’ve had my weeks that I didn’t get a blog post in, but for the most part, posting once a week on Sundays has been pretty consistent. I’ve blogged before, and it was always something that fell by the wayside after a few months of intermittent posts. So I’m happy to say that I’ve done this thing on the reg for a whole year! Pretty crazy.

With that anniversary came a lot of thoughts. What did I want this blog to be? What was I really focusing on? Yes, a blog about counseling and yoga seems like a great idea. But I found that I wasn’t interested in doing that lengthy research every. single. week. for the meager views I was getting. I didn’t feel like I was reaching the right audience that I want to connect with. My sole purpose of this blog was to connect to others over the world wide web and start a conversation – about mental health, about life, about yoga, etc. I’m starting to find, really, what my blog niche is.

So, I became a .com (wholeheartbliss.com) this past week (which coincidentally was also my birthday week!) and changed my name to Whole Heart Bliss. Over the past year, I’ve blogged about nutrition (deciding to go vegetarian), feminism, yoga, and mental health. My intention with changing my blog name is to find happiness for my whole being through these things – a plant based diet, yoga-ing (mostly) every damn day, learning what it means to me to be a feminist, and exploring my ideas on how to stay mentally healthy. If these things sound like something you’d like to explore with me, join me weekly as I blog. Engage in conversations with me! I’d love to hear from you.

As I mentioned above, I was fortunate enough to experience another birthday this past week. I turned 27 on February 18th! I thought turning 27 would freak me out, but honestly, I’m embracing it. When I turned 25 I had a bit of an existential crisis, but 27 was no problem. I have an in-her-30’s friend who told me a few years ago that when she turned 27, she started telling people she was “almost 30” when asked her age to help her prepare for ending her 20’s. So, I think that’s what I’m going to start doing. Because I don’t want to be scared of getting older. There are so many great things that come with age; I want to welcome it with open arms.

We had an awesome time. I had never been before, but my husband has been a lot with his family. The whole time we were in awe, saying “wait, are you positive we’re still in Texas?” We camped and hiked and watched the sunset and the sunrise and saw lots of little critters (2 coyotes, lots of bunnies, 2 foxes, an owl, lots of jack rabbits, and also plenty of road runners that stayed in our camp site). It was a rejuvenating little getaway and I can’t wait to get back there and do it all over again.

Honestly, I was a little surprised I liked the desert as much as I did since I’m a lake and big trees kind of girl. But what I was even more surprised by? ALL THE PEOPLE HIKING WITHOUT WATER. Seriously. We hiked the Lost Mine Trail, which ended up being around 6 miles round trip. We started early in the morning to beat the crowds, seeing as it’s a popular hike and parking was limited. But even then, we were thirsty. Because it’s a freakin’ desert with limited water supply, people! When we were coming back down towards the end of our hike and the crowds started, I was shocked by the number of people we passed who had no water with them. Yes, it’s a short day hike but really? So please, if you go hiking – even for 1 or 2 miles – please take water. You never know what’s going to happen and I would hate for you to get sick or die because you had no H2O! (Rant: Over.) Boy scout motto of “Be Prepared!” applies to non-boy scouts, also.

10 thoughts on “Big Bend National Park: My 27th Birthday Weekend”

That’s the Girl Scout Motto too, by the way, and I’m glad you learned it so well. I’m proud of you. Acadia is my all time favorite, although looking for Scott in Volcano National park with you was pretty awesome!!

Hi Chelvi, thanks for your comments! The weather was perfect when we were there last weekend (February 18th – 21st). It was slightly cold in the mornings and evenings and got up in to the 80’s during the afternoon. I’ve also read that March is a good time to head out there. Hope that helps! And it doesn’t rain much in Texas, so more often than not, you won’t be hiking in rain. Big Bend is also a desert, so not much rain out there in general!